Newburgh Four trial starting

NEW YORK — The long-delayed trial of the Newburgh Four has moved back into the courtroom as attorneys on both sides prepare to make their opening statements.

BY DOYLE MURPHY

NEW YORK — The long-delayed trial of the Newburgh Four has moved back into the courtroom as attorneys on both sides prepare to make their opening statements.

The jury selection began last week in federal court in New York City and will continue Monday. Opening statements could come Tuesday or Wednesday.

This is to be the second run after a false start in the trial of the four men accused of plotting to blow up synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes at Stewart Air National Guard Base in New Windsor.

The men — James Cromitie, David Williams, Laguerre Payen and Onta Williams — were arrested May 20, 2009, with a cache of explosives.

The bombs were fakes supplied by the FBI.

The trial was set to begin in June, but U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon dismissed the jury and delayed the trial as prosecutors conducted a search for documents and information that they may have been required to show defendants.

Defense attorneys and prosecutors spent part of the delay trying to take away one another's best weapons. Defendants tried to persuade McMahon to suppress recorded conversations gathered through wiretaps.

Prosecutors asked the judge to tell defense attorneys they couldn't argue that the four men weren't capable of committing the alleged crimes without help of the informant. Prosecutors also wanted to keep defense counsel from eliciting the "opinions and impressions" of law enforcement agents.

McMahon declined all their requests, and both sides will enter the trial with their key tools intact.

The trial is expected to test the government's use of informants in terrorism cases. Defense attorneys have argued from early on that an informant named Shahed Hussain pushed the four men into a violent plot they had neither the means nor desire to carry out on their own.

Prosecutors claim the evidence will instead show Cromitie, the alleged ringleader, guided the operation and the informant was merely a facilitator.

The men are charged with eight crimes each, including conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. If convicted, they face life in prison.